After 60 years, Luther Blanton has ‘Sweet’ experience

Luther Blanton had a front-row seat in Rupp Arena Wednesday night, right there on the sidelines at the end of the Harlan County bench for the Black Bears’ game against Scott in the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16.

When he was a freshman at Wallins High School in Harlan County in 1957, Blanton started keeping the basketball scorebook for the Purple Devils.

In 1966, Black Star, Hall, Loyall and Wallins were consolidated into Cawood High School, and Blanton started keeping the book for the Trojans.

He stayed there until he switched his loyalty to Harlan when Billy Hicks became the coach of the Green Dragons in the early 1980s.

When Hicks left Harlan a few years later, Blanton went back to Cawood where he kept the book until it was consolidated, along with Cumberland and Evarts, to form Harlan County in 2008.

After 56 years of tending a scorebook for about 1,700 high school basketball games — none of them a regional championship that would have won Blanton a sideline seat at the Sweet 16 — he had to give up his avocation, partly because of failing eyesight, four years ago.

But then came the magic moment last week when Harlan County clipped Corbin 67-65 in the 13th Region final and earned its first trip to the state tournament.

“The next day (Coach Jones) called me and told me I could sit with them on the bench,” said the 73-year-old Blanton. “It took 60 years, but here I am.”

ABOUT MIKE FIELDS

After working as a sports writer for 41 years, I needed a break from the daily demands and deadlines of the newspaper business. So last June I retired from the Lexington Herald-Leader after covering approximately 4,000 high school sports events in my career. Now, eight months later, I’m rested and ready for a part-time return to the game. To reintroduce myself: I was born in Pikeville, grew up in Bardstown, graduated from the University of Kentucky, worked at newspapers in Eustis, Fla., Lake City, Fla., Henderson, Ky., and Evansville, Ind., before coming to Lexington in 1980. Email me at mfields@khsaa.org

Bottom Second Column

The KHSAA uses a Google ad sequence to help fund and pay for its web site. If you find an advertisement in the rotation that is viewed as inappropriate for the web site, please click on web site feedback below, and report the exact URL of the ad.